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The head of the Missouri Senate Education Committee thinks we should force public schools to teach that the Constitutional Convention prayed after Benjamin Franklin said they should — even though it very much never happened.

A virtual media briefing titled ‘America at 250: Religion, Democracy, and the Promise of Pluralism’ covered solutions to the pressing issues of social isolation, political polarization, and bridging divides in the workplace and on college campuses.

The statement’s signers include a mix of denominational leaders, seminary presidents, scholars, and leaders of prominent congregations.

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Church

Faith groups have long received government grants to feed the hungry, respond to disasters, and assist those in need — but recent comments from Trump administration officials have cast such grants in a bad light.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s refusal to defend her fellow Lutherans is quite telling for understanding how some politicians are prioritizing politics and religion today.

Spearheaded by Dr. Atasha Jordan, a Christian psychiatrist, the Christian Mental Health Initiative provides free mental health first aid trainings to churches.

Nation

At least one other religious leader, Muslim hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman, had been detained earlier by ICE as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation effort.

‘We will not retreat, and we will use every nonviolent tool at our disposal, to call this nation, this Congress, to stop all of this partisan fighting and get down to the business of the people,’ said the Rev. William Barber II.

Johnson initially claimed he was not aware of the instances, despite having been directly asked about one of the incidents in a press conference earlier this month.

World

‘We repent of the ways we have not stood alongside our Palestinian siblings in faithful witness in the midst of their grief, agony, and sorrow,’ the leaders wrote.

Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, led the memorial service.

The commitment falls short of demands from some campaigners for institutions that benefited from slavery to pay compensation to descendants of the enslaved.

Editorials

Brian KaylorThe forced resignation of Patrick Conroy as chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives quickly sparked questions and concerns about the intermingling of religion and politics. Some lawmakers believe Speaker Paul Ryan pushed

Brian KaylorWatching the news Saturday night as missiles from the United States, United Kingdom and France struck Syria, I found myself pondering questions about the attack — and about how Christians should react

Brian KaylorMyanmar pastorsOn Christmas Eve of 2016, the military of Myanmar detained two Baptist pastors. We’ve

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell argues that the unfortunate consequence of separating ministries into silos based on age and stage of life means churches miss out on one of their biggest monopolies in the world today: being a place of true intergenerational community.

A recent op-ed published in the Washington Post about Christian Nationalism engaged in dangerous historical revisionism, failing to listen to and learn from the lessons of the past.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that we should see the cross and the rainbow flag together and identify Christ with a community of excluded people.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness seeks sanctuary to understand the history of how ICE interacts with houses of worship and the pushback against Trump’s changes from various Christian groups.

The first week of the new Trump administration was filled with attacks on the religious liberty rights of Episcopalians and Catholics. Over the weekend, another Christian group found itself in crosshairs: the ELCA.

Few people have thought as much about faith and politics as Danforth, who served as Missouri’s attorney general, special counsel for the DOJ, special envoy to Sudan, and ambassador to the UN for George W. Bush.

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Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "You Never Step into the Same Pulpit Twice: Preaching from a Perspective of Process Theology" by Ronald J. Allen. This book seeks to offer guidance to preachers who approach questions from a particular vantage point: Process

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities" by Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher. This book explores the fact that many marginalized Christian communities live without the traditional trappings of institutional religion. Nevertheless,

Our democracy is in trouble and we need to elect pro-democracy candidates. But what if that isn’t sufficient? That’s why Christopher Beem wrote "The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can do to Overcome Tribalism and Save Our Democracy." A political

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Church on the Move: A Practical Guide for Ministry in the Community" by G. Travis Norvell. Churches can easily become insulated from the surrounding world. They create silos by turning turn inward, seeking to protect whatever